EKB News

Over the past six years, the state has been writing IOUs to the teachers' pension fund while, each year since fiscal 2005, redirecting millions of dollars from the teachers' pension fund to the retirees' medical insurance fund. The amount borrowed in the first year was $29 million, but, with rising health care costs, the amount borrowed last fiscal year soared to $139 million and $134 million this year, while legislators promised to repay the money at a 7.5% interest rate. Now, the pension fund has less than 68% of the assets needed to pay benefits to nearly 134,000 current and retired teachers. Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System officials are pushing a plan that suggests the state pay off its $521 million debt and find a sustainable way in the future to pay for retired teachers' health insurance.